Code 7, Victim 5 (1964)

Touches You

People are voting emotionally.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The influence of Bond is writ large in this very cheap and Mystery Science Theater-worthy thriller (cf Agent for H.A.R.M.). Lex Barker saunters through most of the action as Steve Martin, hand in pocket, careful not to take things too seriously and mostly incredulous at the unmotivated action that unravels around him.From the moment he disembarks at Cape Town harbour he is beset with snooping policemen, eager women and danger. As a Capetonian, it is really funny watching Helga (Ann Smyrner) drive Steve along the Atlantic seaboard while driving over picturesque Chapman's Peak (twice) which is on the opposite side of the mountains. Of course, the reason for this is to throw in an action-packed car-chase.Seductive and dangerous woman (check), villain with a foreign accent (check), innovative but failed assassination attempts (check, including underwater scuba manoeuvre), dramatic exterior set-pieces (check, including unnecessary trip to the Cango Caves and game park), dangerous animals (check), racist exploitation of local scenes and people (check).The opening scene (which uncannily foreshadows Live and Let Die)is great and gives viewers a chance to see District Six on screen. This was just before the apartheid government began its program of forced removals. The Table Mountain climax - the film's alternate title is Table Bay - is both laughable and spectacular, and so badly edited you wonder if everyone was enjoying Cape Town's beach action a little too much. Still, it's a curiosity for those keen to see Cape Town in a previous era, or to see the influence of the espionage genre in the wake of James Bond.

Producer Towers was very big on stories in which people are picked off, one after the other. (He produced screen versions of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" three times!) While this film isn't exactly in the same vein, it does feature, as part of its plot line, five men who are connected by an event during the war being killed, one at a time (the first one being during the war.) Former "Tarzan" Barker plays a hired detective, placed in charge by Rilla of finding out who is behind the slayings before Rilla's turn comes about. As he pokes around South Africa trying to uncover the killer's identity, he is allied with a local police inspector (Fraser) and distracted by two very curvy and very big-haired ladies. Smyrner is Rilla's blonde, Danish assistant and Vendell is his brunette adoptive daughter. Barker is unable to figure out the mystery or to keep the body count at bay until all is revealed at the end in a fairly surprising finale. Barker is still fit and unbelievably tan here, though obviously older than when he swung from the vines and cavorted with his one-time wife Lana Turner. He gives a decent performance, doing a large amount of his own stunts and only looking awkward or in any way foolish when he is mired in some tentative love scenes with the ladies. It's asking a lot of the audience to believe that Fraser is the "chick magnet" that he's portrayed to be here. There's nothing wrong with his acting, but that aspect of his character is ludicrous with Fraser in the role unless he has about 12 undisclosed secrets no one knows about. Smyrner is pretty weak. Her lines (like many peoples' in this international cast) aren't always completely discernible and she's content to smile prettily rather than display any significant emotion in her scenes. Vendell has the spicier role, though she's not exactly amazing either. Both gals show off some serious curves (and use enough hairspray that they should have their own ozone hole named after them!) The setting of Capetown is amply exploited with some really interesting locations and varieties of terrain. There doesn't appear to be much, if any, rear projection here. The cinematography (by no less than Nicholas Roeg!) manages to capture the local color in a reasonably captivating way, especially in a vertigo-inducing scene atop a jagged cliff. The music has a bouncy, swingy feel to it that may annoy as many viewers as it pleases, depending on one's taste. In this relatively tame film, there is one awfully bloody death scene that also includes an actor mumbling a long stream of last words that, unfortunately, reveal aspects of the plot, but good luck understanding him! The revelation of the killer is, thankfully, a bit less obvious than it seems as if it's going to be and that helps make the film better that it could have been. As it stands, it's a so-so mystery whose chief assets are the strong arms and sun-kissed smile of Barker and the interesting location work.

To begin with, what kind of name is Code 7, Victim 5? From what I saw, this ridiculous title has nothing to do with anything that takes place in the movie.Lex Barker plays some sort of security consultant / detective who is hired by a wealthy man in South Africa. The wealthy man fears for his life and needs protection. A paying job is a paying job so Barker sets off for South Africa. There he finds one of the most uneventful adventures ever put on film. There's not much for Barker to do other than hook-up with every average looking female in the country and carry out his lame investigations. There's no suspense. There's no intrigue. There's not even a good cheesy spy movie type moment to save this mess. This is one of those rare films set in an exotic local with a mysterious killer on the loose that actually manages to be deathly dull. The only things that save Code 7, Victim 5 from the bottom of the barrel are a few random set-pieces that I found mildly interesting. This is one to avoid.

CODE 7, VICTIM 5 is now available in a cheap DVD, and for a few dollars (mine cost $3 US), it's passable entertainment, mostly for the presence of Lex Barker as private eye "Steve Martin" (same name as Raymond Burr's character in GODZILLA). This is a typical Harry Alan Towers production--find an out-of-the-way country where the pound/dollar goes a long way and without powerful unions, hire a lot of locals in small roles, use a lot of free locations to give the film "color," have Towers himself pen a by-the-numbers script over dinner or during a flight. South Africa photographs well (the film was shot by Nicholas Roeg, so it's no surprise), and is so unfamiliar to this American that the background almost becomes a character. The plot is the standard "someone is killing off one by one the members of a group from a previous time" and ex-Nazis are even dragged in. Ronald Fraser (best known in the USA for FATHOM, with Raquel Welch and the late great Tony Franciosa) does a good job as the local police inspector who finds jet-setting detective Barker to be a bit of a pest, but eventually realizes Barker's honesty and professionalism--Fraser and Barker are the perfect foils for each other. Nothing special here--probably of interest mostly to the Barker fan (or those who want a quick three-dollar travelogue of South Africa).